World of Spa & Wellness

Wellness

The Global Wellness Day is approaching and we are currently planning for inspiring activities here in Sweden, as Anna-Cari, our MD is the ambassador for Global Wellness Day in Sweden. If you haven’t yet liked the official Facebook profile for Global Wellness Day Sweden, – please do so, as we share lot’s of wellness related inspiration in this community.

This week we have invited Monica Karppinen as a Guest blogger. Monica is a yoga teacher and she shares her thoughts on wellness with us in this blog post:

Wellness is for me about balance in all aspects of living. When reflecting on my life, and what gives me wellness I find healthy eating, moderate workout, mental & spiritual development and human connections that gives me wellness. But I have a key point – nothing in extreme. The right amount of everything gives me wellness.

Wellness for me is equal to awareness. To be aware of our actions in all above-mentioned aspects of living.

To maintain my awareness I reduce the temptations and distractions, that we are faced with daily. Nearly every minute we have something that can potentially withdraw our connection from our selves; Food, drinks, nicotine, phones, iPads, computers, music, things, toys etc… I want to be able to read my body’s signals if there is something wrong or not serving me in a good way.

For example I switched to vegan clean eating, to get natural simple food, because I don’t want my body to receive chemical and artificial stuffed food. I want my body to get the maximum nutrition and unfortunately the food industry is not providing us this, their main concern is to make more money. They are giving animals all kinds of preparation to make them grow bigger so they can get more food out of them. I have seen chickens that grow so big that they can’t walk… That’s what I’m concerned about and therefore I’m not eating meat anymore.

Furthermore I’m consciously choosing the information my brain receives from media. I stopped reading magazines when I was young, and I stopped watching news about 10 years ago to reduce the negative information we are bombarded with. I even select what kind of information comes to my Facebook feed, I want to control the information my brain receives daily.

I spent recently six months in India and realized how my previous lifestyle made me feel contra the life in India. In India I didn’t have Facebook, Messenger, Snapchat, Instagram or Whatsup in my phone that would constantly remind me of the life of other people and a stress for me to report my life to them. I used my phone when I had wifi connection at cafes, and wow, what a difference it made in my life! Suddenly I had so much more time!

What I also noticed in India is the up-tempo world we are living in, always wanting to achieve and become something more and better. There is nothing wrong in that, but at what cost? Stress is the main factor that makes us sick these days. Stress related illnesses appear gradually. My practice of yoga and meditation keeps me in tuned with my body and mind. I can carefully observe where my mind wanders or how my body feels.

Wellness for me is also to do the right thing, to find your talent and in that way give back to the world. It will automatically make you feel happier. Imagine working with what you love, and in return make other people happy. Imagine how you will feel after each day.

Today, for many people it’s turned the other way around. They spend the most time at work they hate so they can spend big money on things they really don’t need and thinks it will give happiness, like a an expensive bag or a Ferrari. But truly, does this satisfy you at the end of every 365 days of the year?

There was a point in my life where I wanted to succeed; I was in the treadmill, and working hard. I wanted to become someone important, a leader actually, to run a successful spa or yoga studio. Nothing wrong in that, but it wasn’t the right path for me. Do you know why? Because it was not my talent. I was struggling, feeling super stressed. I started to question if that really was what I wanted.

The Dalai Lama’s quote totally changed my path, he said “The planet does not need successful leaders, it needs healers, lovers, storytellers of all kinds”. That resonated totally with my beliefs and me.

I put out my question to the universe to show me what I should do. Eventually I realized my passion was in teaching yoga and giving massage. I moved to India for six moths and totally dived into yoga, treatments and meditation. I healed myself, by doing what I love and have a passion for.